And the disciples came up and said to him, Why speakest thou to them in parables?
Israel has refused its King. Instead of announcing a kingdom, the Lord tells the crowd a story about a sower — and the disciples want to know why. Their question draws out one of the most solemn answers He ever gave.
The disciples had just heard something new. Their Master had always spoken plainly; now He told a story.
"The disciples came up to Him and said, Why do You speak to them in parables?" This question came right after He had finished this first parable. They had never heard a parable from His lips. Before this, He had spoken to the people and their leaders in simple words that everyone could easily understand. Now, for the first time, He said something they could not grasp. It was veiled. The answer our Lord gives is deeply solemn, because it announces the judgment upon Israel.
The change of setting explains the change of method. He leaves the house behind and takes His place by the sea.
The prophet had said, "Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness" — here the King is rejected. Yet if they rejected Him, grace still goes on, and flows out to the Gentiles. The Lord had closed Jewish relationships, and spoken at the end of chapter 12 of a new family, a new relationship formed by the word of God. So He leaves the house, goes to the sea, and instead of a king reigning, it is "Behold, a sower went out to sow."
A parable does two things at once. The same story that opens the truth to one hearer closes it to another.
The same parable would be just like the cloud of Israel in a former day — full of light to those within, full of obscurity to those outside. So it is with the sayings of our Lord. The crisis with unbelieving Israel was so solemn now that it was not His intention to give clearer light. Conscience was gone. They had the Lord among them, bringing in full light, and He was refused, especially by the religious leaders. He had now broken with them: here was the clue to His conduct. … The truth stayed hidden from the crowd, because they had already rejected the clearest possible proofs that Jesus was the Messiah of God.
His answer links the parables to something that had already happened.
The Lord's answer is telling. It confirms that the teaching of the parables of the kingdom of heaven ties directly to the rejection of the King. This was a case of "judicial blindness." … This is solemn indeed. They could not see because they had refused to see.
Did God shut these people out on purpose, so that they could never be saved?
This does not mean God hid these things from them because He did not want them converted. In fact, if people would only admit their ignorance and ask in earnest, they too would be converted and find forgiveness of sins. Those who chose to stay ignorant would remain that way.
This way of teaching also put distance between the Lord and the crowd.
A parable, then, especially in its more formal form, stated divine truth under the cover of an illustration. Only those who were truly hungry for the truth would look inside. For them, there would be no difficulty. … But this speaking in parables suggests a moral distance, a separation between the Lord and the mass of the people. If they were to grasp His teaching, they had to want to.
In His answer the Lord speaks of "mysteries" — the word the ESV translates as "secrets." It does not mean something too deep to grasp. It means a secret now told.
The mystery is no longer "hidden in God" — it is disclosed. You must always keep this in mind when you read about the mystery: it is now revealed, and nothing is left in the dark. The secret is set out in the light of God, and the simplest Christian is expected to receive it. So Christ said to His disciples, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." … Can any words do more to clear away the common idea that a mystery is something we cannot understand?
- Rejection — Israel refused its King. So He leaves the house and sits by the sea. The picture changes from a king reigning to a sower sowing.
- Veil — The disciples had never heard Him speak this way. His first parable hid the truth under a story, and His reply announced judgment on Israel.
- Two sides — One parable works like the cloud of old. It gave light to those inside and darkness to those outside. Conscience in the nation was gone.
- Refusal — The blindness was judicial, yet self-chosen. They could not see because they had refused to see. Only the hungry look inside a parable.
- Secret told — "Mysteries" are not truths too deep to grasp. They are secrets now brought into the light, and the simplest believer is meant to receive them.
And he answering said to them, Because to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of the heavens, but to them it is not given;
The disciples had just asked why their Master taught the crowds in stories instead of plain speech. His answer draws a line straight through His audience. Two questions follow. What are these "secrets of the kingdom of heaven"? And why does one group receive them and not the other?
The turn to parables came after a crisis. The same words that opened the truth to some left others in the dark, like the cloud that once stood over Israel.
The same parable would be just like the cloud of Israel long ago — full of light to those inside, full of darkness to those outside. So it is with the sayings of our Lord. The crisis with unbelieving Israel was so solemn that He did not intend to give clearer light. Conscience was gone. They had the Lord among them, bringing in full light, and they refused Him — above all the religious leaders. He had now broken with them: here is the clue to His conduct. It stayed hidden from the crowd, because they had already rejected the clearest possible proofs that Jesus was the Messiah of God.
The withholding was not random. It answered what the hearers had already done to themselves.
This was a case of "judicial blindness." The Lord quotes Isaiah to show it. That people's heart had grown dull. They barely heard with their ears, and they had shut their eyes. This is solemn indeed. They could not see because they had refused to see.
The word does not mean a puzzle too deep for anyone to solve. In the Bible it means a secret that God has now told out.
The mystery is no longer "hid in God"; God has disclosed it. Always keep this in mind when you read about the mystery: it is now revealed and nothing is left in the dark. God sets the secret out in His own light, and the simplest Christian is expected to receive it. So Christ said to His disciples, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven." All the other mysteries of God are made known in the same way. Could anything more completely clear away the common idea that a mystery is something no one can understand, and that godly people dare not look into?
Revealed, yes — but not to every reader alike. Reading alone will not take it in.
In Scripture the word mystery does not point to what is mysterious, the way people use the word. It presents some distinctive truth that God has disclosed for our understanding. The New Testament holds many such mysteries, and what they contain is there to enlighten the saints. But only those with faith can profit by these divine unveilings. Only the faithful are let into their truths. Only those who have the Spirit of God have the capacity and the power to grasp the mind of God revealed in this way. God wants to bring you and me into His secrets: do we want to know them?
The kingdom itself was no secret. The prophets had already described it. What was new was the shape it took after Israel rejected its King.
We have not had the word "mysteries" before in connection with the kingdom of heaven. The testimony of the prophets about the kingdom had no mystery about it. This comes as a result of Israel rejecting Christ. So notice, in verse 35, that all this stayed secret until now.
So the kingdom took a form no one had foretold. Its King is not on the scene.
While the King is rejected His kingdom cannot be a public affair. When it is public, the kingdom of heaven will be on open display: the thousand-year reign of Christ. Meanwhile the kingdom is in mystery. The rightful Heir is away, so the kingdom is left in the hands of men who are responsible for it. It stands in a world that has rejected the rightful Heir, a world whose every principle is against God.
The disciples did not earn their understanding. They had received Him, and knowledge followed as a gift.
Because of their faith, the Lord would make known to them the mystery of the kingdom of God. Even this was a display of His grace. Many prophets and righteous men in Old Testament times had longed to hear the things they were now hearing, but they never had that privilege. You could say this was the Lord's sovereign grace. He chose to bless those who had done what they were responsible to do: they received Him.
- Given. The knowledge is a gift, not a reward. The disciples received the Person first; the understanding came after, as grace.
- Given as a secret told. In Scripture a mystery is not something too deep to grasp. It is something once hidden that God has now said out loud.
- Given to those with the Spirit. The secret is out in the open, yet only faith profits by it. The power to take in God's mind comes from God Himself.
- Given because the King was refused. The prophets described a kingdom in open glory. Christ's rejection brought in a kingdom in mystery, run by men while the rightful Heir is away.
- Not given, and why. The same parable lit the way for one group and left the other in the dark. That blindness was God's judgment on people who had first shut their own eyes.
for whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall be caused to be in abundance; but he who has not, even what he has shall be taken away from him.
Jesus has just told the crowd the parable of the sower, and His disciples want to know why He now teaches this way. His answer gives a rule that sounds harsh at first: what a person already holds decides what he receives next.
The verse begins with "for". It gives the reason why some understand the Lord's parables and others do not. One writer applies the two halves to two groups: the disciples, and the leaders who had refused Him.
The same parable would be just like the cloud that led Israel long ago — full of light for those inside, full of darkness for those outside... The Lord was among them, bringing in full light, and they refused Him, above all the religious leaders. He had now broken with them, and that is the clue to His conduct... So it was with the disciples. They had already received Him, and now the Lord would give them truth to lead them on. "But from the one who has not" (Israel, who was rejecting Christ), "even what he has will be taken away" — the Lord's presence in person and the proof of His miracles would soon pass away.
One writer passes on another's description of two kinds of hearer:
Whoever has really made the truths he has heard a living possession will always be given more. But the one who has received it only as something dead and outward will lose even what he seems to have, but really has not.
Another writer ties having to use:
What we do not have in the power of faith for real use, we do not have in deed and in truth.
The second half of the verse lands on a nation with a real head start. One writer explains what Israel held, and what it lacked:
To understand this verse we must see these people in the place of privilege God had given them as a nation. As such they had something the other nations did not have. But they did not have this new thing which Christ was opening out. So as a nation they were about to lose the standing they once had before God. Those who had received Jesus as their Messiah, though, were about to be brought into the kingdom of heaven in its heavenly character.
The saying is not only about Israel long ago. One writer sets it beside the parable of the talents, where a servant loses the one talent he had:
The end of verse 12 is very solemn: "from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." In another place it reads "seems to have." It is possible to have something that will be taken from you. Where the Lord speaks of the talents, the man with one talent is a servant of the Lord Jesus, yet his talent is taken from him and given to the man who had ten. That talent was light he had; people are responsible for the light they have.
The rule did not end with Israel. One writer applies it to our own day:
But this two-edged sword cuts another way as well. The principle our Lord states here is still at work. The true believers who make up the church have, and in due time we shall have abundance. Meanwhile a Christian world that has fallen away from the faith has not, and will lose even what it boasts of having.
Another writer brings the rule down to one believer's daily life:
If you do not go forward, you will go backward. If you are not making progress, you are falling behind. If you are not entering into what God has given you in His word, you are losing what you already have... Thanks be to the grace of God, this loss is not absolute and final. But we do lose the enjoyment of what is our own.
- Given — The disciples had already received Christ Himself, so He gave them more truth.
- Grasped — To "have" is to make truth a living possession. Truth held only outwardly is what a person merely seems to have.
- Gone — Israel had real privilege as a nation, but not the new thing Christ was opening. Refusing Him, it lost the standing it held.
- Governing — The rule still runs: light is a trust, and people are responsible for the light they have.
- Growing — There is no neutral ground. Not going forward in what God has given is already going backward — losing the enjoyment of it, not the security of it.
For this cause I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear nor understand;
Matthew 13 finds the Lord by the sea, teaching the crowds in stories. His disciples ask why He changed His way of speaking, and this verse gives His reason: the crowd could see and hear, yet took nothing in.
The change did not come out of nowhere.
This is the first time the word parable occurs in the New Testament. The disciples, struck by this way of teaching, asked Him: "Why do you speak to them in parables?" (v. 10). The Lord's answer is telling. It links the parables of the kingdom of heaven directly to the rejection of the king… This was a case of "judicial blindness". The Lord quotes Isaiah to show it: "their eyes they have closed" (v. 15). They could not see because they had refused to see.
That rejection changed God's dealings with the whole nation.
This rejection of Jesus, and the destruction of Jerusalem that followed, cut short all God's dealings with them as a nation for the time. They were set aside, and a new work began. Meanwhile judicial blindness falls on them, and the words of Isaiah the prophet come true. So He speaks to them in parables… Before this the Lord had not spoken in parables. But now He is the rejected One, and Israel is cut off for the time. None understand except those He instructs.
The verse describes eyes that work and still see nothing. So who closed them?
These people the Lord was speaking about had closed their eyes. It does not say God closed them. They closed them themselves, and so they did not receive the light of this new thing.
The order runs one way, and it still holds today.
Matthew 13:13-15 shows plainly that Israel's wilful blindness came before their judicial blindness… In His absolute justice, God has now confirmed that blindness for the whole time that grace is going out to the Gentiles.
The third failure in the verse is not about eyesight or hearing at all. The Greek word carries the idea of assembling things in the mind.
suniemi (from sun and iemi) means "to bring or set together"… It then stands for the soul's built-in capacity to do this. It joins the outward object to the inward sense. It is to weigh a thing, think it over closely, and so grasp its meaning. See Matthew 13:13-14 and the parallel passages.
Which failure gets named depends on who was listening:
Take people who did not have the word of God, whom the gospel would test when it went out to them in due time. For them the question was believing something they had never heard before. In Matthew the words go to a people who already had the word, and for them the great thing was to understand it. This they did not do.
A parable does not hide the truth from everyone. The same words land in two ways.
The same parable would be just like the cloud of Israel in an earlier day — full of light to those inside, full of darkness to those outside. The crisis with unbelieving Israel was so solemn that He did not intend to give clearer light… He kept it from the crowd because they had already rejected the clearest possible proofs that Jesus was the Messiah of God… They loved darkness rather than light. What is the good of a light to one who shuts his eyes?
Sharp intelligence is no help here; the difference lies elsewhere.
The design lies on the surface, so the opened eye can read it. Yet, clear as it is, "the wise and prudent" of this world do not see it… But it is always like this in God's teaching: to grasp the truth we must be taught by God. This is absolutely necessary. The keenest intellect is wholly unable to discern the mind of God.
The Lord had warned them first.
He had also warned them plainly. If they refused to hear Him, He would bring on them the sentence He went on to pronounce… So they were without excuse. No one can accuse the Lord Jesus of unfairness when He chose to begin speaking to them in parables. The Judge of the earth will always do right, even in judgment.
Yet the door stayed open to anyone who would ask.
If people would only admit their ignorance and ask in earnest, they too would be converted and find forgiveness of sins. Those who chose to stay ignorant would remain that way.
- Refusal first. They saw the clearest proofs and turned them down. Their own hands closed their eyes, and God's judgment then sealed them shut.
- Sentence next. They rejected the King, so His plain speech gave way to parables. He did not take the light away; He veiled it.
- Understanding is the issue. The failing word means to put things together and weigh them; a people who already held God's word would not do it.
- Two sides of one cloud. The same parable is light to those inside and darkness to those outside. Only those taught by God take its meaning.
- Still just, still open. No one can charge God with unfairness here. Anyone who admits ignorance and asks gets an answer, as the disciples did.
and in them is filled up the prophecy of Esaias, which says, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and beholding ye shall behold and not see;
The disciples asked why their Master had begun teaching the crowds in stories they could not decode. His answer reached back seven hundred years, to words God gave Isaiah about a people who would hear and never understand. The Lord said that word was coming true, in full, in the crowd standing in front of Him.
The verse turns on one verb. Writers who trace the Greek note that "understand" here means more than hearing a sound:
suniemi (from sun and iemi) means "to bring or set together"... As a picture, it came to stand for the soul's own power to do this: it joins the outward object to the inward sense. It means to weigh a thing, think it over carefully, and so grasp what it means.
So the failure is not in the ears. These people would not put what they heard together with what it meant.
God did not act on Isaiah's word at once. He waited on the nation for centuries:
Israel, as such, had forfeited its place, and therefore was "a people of no understanding" (Isa. 27:11). Long patience had waited on Israel. Seven hundred years had passed since God gave Isaiah the word, "Go and tell this people: you will hear indeed, but not understand." As individuals they might gather around the person of the Lord, but as a nation they were blinded... The testimony to Israel is now closed, though God's final purpose for them is not.
Does God blind people, or do they blind themselves first? One writer traces the order and the result:
The blinding here is plainly judicial. God Himself has given them sightless eyes and unhearing ears. But why is this? It is no arbitrary judgment. Matthew 13:13-15 shows clearly that Israel's wilful blindness came before their judicial blindness... Now God, in His absolute justice, has confirmed this blindness. It stands for the whole length of the present period of grace to the Gentiles — "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in."
Matthew's wording of Isaiah does not match the Hebrew text. In the Greek Old Testament the shut eyes are the people's own act, not something done to them. That is the version the Lord used, and He spoke of the prophecy as now completely fulfilled:
Turn to Matthew's Gospel and you will see this. The Lord speaks of the complete fulfilment (anapleroo) of this prophecy, and He quotes the Greek version, not the Hebrew text (Matt. 13:13-15). The people had themselves closed their eyes. Mark and Luke record only the first part of the prophecy, which states Israel's condition of hearing and not understanding. All three agree in showing that the Lord took up teaching in parables because of their unfeeling moral state.
In Isaiah the same words are followed by a question and an answer. That answer marks out the age the parables describe:
Our Lord quotes another prophecy of Isaiah, which was now coming true... These words come from Isa. 6:9-10, and there they are joined to what follows. The prophet says, "Then I said, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities lie waste with no inhabitant, and the houses are without people, and the land is utterly desolate, and the LORD has removed people far away, and there is a great forsaking in the midst of the land." The Saviour's quotation from this passage matters. It settles that this predicted period of Israel's desolation is the period in which the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven exist and develop.
One writer points out that the same chapter of Isaiah is quoted three times in the New Testament. Read together, the three show one process running to its end:
Paul spoke a final word to the unbelieving Jews before they left, quoting the passage from Isaiah 6 — the passage the Lord Himself quoted in Matthew 13, and John quotes in chapter 12 of his Gospel. This sad and terrible process of hardening and spiritual death had set in even in the days of Isaiah some seven centuries before Christ. It was much stronger when Christ was on earth, and now it has reached its final stage... As a nation they are blinded and without understanding in the things of God, though very sharp about the things of the world. This does not, of course, conflict with God still calling out a remnant according to the election of grace, as Romans 11 states.
- Patience. Seven hundred years stood between Isaiah's word and this moment; God waited before He acted on it.
- Refusal. The blinding was not arbitrary — wilful blindness came first, judicial blindness after.
- Their own hands. Matthew quotes the Greek version, where the closed eyes are something the people did to themselves.
- Sentence. Isaiah asked how long, and the answer was desolation. That stretch of time is where the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven run their course.
- Remnant. The nation is set aside for this age, yet grace still calls out people one by one — the hardening is national, never total.
for the heart of this people has grown fat, and they have heard heavily with their ears, and they have closed their eyes as asleep, lest they should see with the eyes, and hear with the ears, and understand with the heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
The Lord has just answered a question about why He teaches the crowds in parables. His answer reaches back to Isaiah. Here is a people surrounded by light who cannot take it in. Did God blind them, or did they blind themselves?
The Lord changed how He taught because the nation had rejected Him.
The Lord's answer is telling. It confirms that His teaching in parables about the kingdom of heaven is directly related to the rejection of the king (vs. 11, 13). This was a case of "judicial blindness." The Lord quotes from Isaiah to show this. This is solemn indeed. They could not see because they had refused to see.
The verse names three things: a heart, ears, and eyes.
The heart of the people had grown fat. A thick insulation encased it, so that the precious truth of God could make no impression. Their ears had become dulled so as not to hear properly, and they themselves had closed their eyes. This was willful blindness, because they did not want the truth.
The wording matters. Commentators note that this quotation follows the Greek version of the Old Testament. That version puts the closing of the eyes down to the people themselves.
Compare these passages. The Gospels quote this prophecy, and so does the apostle Paul when he speaks to the Jews at Rome. Both point to the nation deliberately closing its own ears. "Their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed" (Acts 28:27). This wording comes from the Greek version of the Old Testament, which gives the passage this turn. Their sin was therefore their own deliberate action, and the nation is held responsible for it.
This raises the hardest question in the verse: does God make people blind?
The hardening itself is clear and certain. God never made any man bad. But He may give people up to the consequences of their own folly and evil — and in certain cases He does. That is, He hardens in judgment those who despise and reject His grace. All are responsible. Sin destroys the capacity, not the responsibility, of obeying God.
One writer puts the two blindings in order:
The blinding here is a judgment from God. He Himself has given them sightless eyes and ears that do not hear. But why is this? It is no arbitrary judgment. Matthew 13:13-15 shows that Israel's willful blindness came before their judicial blindness. God, in His absolute justice, has now confirmed that blindness for the whole length of the present period of grace to the Gentiles — "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in."
Mary shows what an open heart does with truth it does not yet understand.
Understanding is of the heart (Matt. 13:15). Mary kept the deep sayings about the Christ in her heart. In secret she kept pondering them, so that she might understand them in time (Luke 2:19, 51).
The verse ends with healing. For Israel that word covered more than the body.
If Israel would only listen to His voice, every present earthly blessing was to come upon them and overtake them, as the Lord's glorious promise put it. Among these blessings was the removal of all sickness, as we read again and again (Ex. 15:26; Ex. 23:15). So the pardon of their sins and their healing are treated as the same thing (see Matt. 13:15 and Mark).
A sentence passed on a nation is not a sentence passed on every person in it.
The nation as such is given up to hardness of heart. There is no use in increasing their condemnation with more light. And yet the very fact that He speaks to them at all shows that all are not given up. If any are in earnest enough to look past the outward form, they will still find a gracious heart beating towards them. The national rejection leaves individual responsibility where it always is. He that has an ear, as the Lord tells them, still may hear.
The warning reaches past Israel to anyone who reads it:
Are you a self-satisfied rejecter of the truth? Then beware, in case He gives you up to blindness and hardness of heart too. How long has God held out His hands, ready to receive you?
- Refused — the eyes in this verse are shut from the inside; they could not see because they had refused to see.
- Confirmed — God never starts the hardening. He gives people up to the consequences of their own choice. Sin removes the ability to obey, never the responsibility.
- Heart — understanding is of the heart. Truth pondered there is truth grasped in time.
- Forfeited — what they shut out was healing, which for Israel meant the pardon of their sins.
- Open — the sentence fell on the nation, not on every soul in it; anyone with an ear to hear may still hear, and the warning stands for every reader.
But blessed are *your* eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear;
Jesus has just described a crowd who look without seeing and listen without understanding. Then He turns to the small group beside Him and calls their eyes and ears blessed. So where does such sight come from, and can anyone have it today?
Earlier in the chapter, the same words about seeing and hearing point the other way. One writer shows how the two statements mirror each other, and why the word order changes:
That is how the Lord refers to them in verse 16 of our chapter... It is negative in verse 13, but positive in verse 16. It is striking that when our Lord quotes from Isaiah it says, "You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive." That looks at their side, their responsibility. So hearing comes first. But where God is working in the heart, seeing comes first. The Pharisees saw only what natural eyes can see. They could not see these spiritual realities.
Sharp senses and a quick mind do not produce this sight.
People say that we gain knowledge in three ways. By observation, using our eyes. By teaching, using our ears. By intuition, using our brains. But these human faculties are of no use when it comes to grasping divine things. That is why we read, "But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear."
This is why one and the same parable can enlighten one listener and leave another in the dark:
The design lies on the surface, where an opened eye can read it. And yet, clear as it is, "the wise and prudent" of this world do not notice it. Like the pillar of fire, it gives light to Israel and is only darkness to the Egyptian. But it is always like this in divine teaching: to grasp the truth we must be taught by God.
The Lord Himself says who they are. He points to what they had already done with His voice:
Speaking to His disciples, He said, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear." They were His followers, because they had heard Him. As the sheep of the "little flock" they had heard the voice of the good Shepherd. When He was instructing His disciples, He described them as those who heard... These had hungered and thirsted after the word of righteousness. They were blessed indeed, for His ministry as the Prophet filled them.
They did not take it all in at once. Their understanding came later:
Until after the blood had been shed, they knew very little of what those words meant — "Blessed are your eyes, for they see." But what did they see? "The glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." And what they saw, and heard, and touched, they received — the eternal life which was in the bosom of the Father.
The Lord sets their position beside those who lived before them. One writer draws out the difference in a line:
He Himself emphasised the privileges of their position in Matthew 13:16-17... Others had looked and longed for His coming; the disciples had Him before their eyes day after day.
The same capacity belongs to believers now:
The Spirit forms in the believer a faculty to understand what is revealed. We read in 1 Corinthians 2:16, "But we have the mind of Christ." This is a remarkable statement. It means we have the thinking faculty of Christ. God has worked in our hearts, so that we recognise He is revealing Himself. And He has given us His Spirit, so that we may understand what is revealed.
So the same words become a question for us:
The Lord once said to His disciples, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear." The crowd around them were hard of heart, dull of hearing, and their eyes were closed... Are our eyes and ears spiritually alert in this day? Are we able to enter into the mind of the Lord, and so walk intelligently in a dark world?
- Contrast — Verse 16 is the bright reverse of verse 13: closed eyes there, opened eyes here.
- Given — Our own eyes, ears and reasoning cannot reach divine things. God gives this sight.
- Heard — The blessed ones had listened to His voice, like sheep hearing the Shepherd.
- Seen — Their eyes were blessed because they saw the glory of the only Son from the Father, day after day, where others had only longed.
- Alert — The Spirit gives believers now the same capacity to understand. So the question stands: are our eyes and ears awake?
for verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous [men] have desired to see the things which ye behold and did not see [them], and to hear the things which ye hear and did not hear [them].
The Lord has just explained why the crowd hears only riddles, and now He turns to His own with a word of blessing. This verse shows how much they had. Many faithful people before them wanted the same thing and died without it.
The blessing falls on a small group set apart from the nation. One writer explains why the two stand so far apart.
In verse 11 the Lord shows why He speaks in riddles to the crowd. There is now a clear distinction between the remnant and the nation. The nation was under the judgment of blindness that the prophet Isaiah pronounced. Blessed were the eyes of the disciples that saw Emmanuel, the Messiah — the One so many prophets and righteous men hoped for and longed for. All this marks judgment, and a called and spared remnant.
Nothing in them earned that place. One writer shows what stood behind it:
Because of their faith, the Lord would make known to them the mystery of the kingdom of God (v. 11). Yet even this was really a display of His grace. Many prophets and righteous men in Old Testament times had longed to hear the things they were now hearing, but had not had that privilege.
The word behind "longed" is not a negative word. Older versions translate it "desired."
The word epithumeo means "to desire earnestly," and is often translated "desire," without the thought of the desire being an evil one, as in Matt. 13:17; 1 Tim. 3:1; 1 Peter 1:12.
So why did the prophets miss it? The reason was not in them.
The prophets did not see these things because they were not presented to them. They only came to light when the Lord brought them out. The Father raised up so many of those faithful men and gave them life. They worked wonderfully for God in their day, yet they did not know these wonderful things which have now been made known to us.
The prophets even had to study their own writings. They learned that their service reached past their own lifetime.
The prophets of old spoke both of the sufferings of Christ and of the glories that would follow. But we stand now between sufferings finished and glories yet to come. The prophets were foretelling these things, but they had not yet come. So they searched to see what kind of time the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing to. As they studied their own testimonies, it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but us. This is very striking. They were so far from telling out the expectations of their own minds that they had to study their own prophecies to understand them, if possible.
Earlier believers had real dealings with God too.
We can recall the privileges of the patriarchs, the prophets and the kings of Old Testament times. The Lord appeared to them and spoke to them. But great as these things were, they could not compare with the presence of the Son of God who had come as man, and the words He spoke and the works He did.
That day was not the high point.
But it is plain that even that wonderful privilege was below the mighty increase brought in by His death, resurrection and ascension. That was even more true once the Holy Spirit was given, to grasp it all fully and to bear witness to it.
What about those who longed and died before that day?
Many prophets and righteous men had wanted to see what the disciples saw, but never lived to their day. Will they be robbed of their joy? No. They shall see the day of Christ's glory. They shall see the crop that has come from the seed they sowed in patience and under hardship — seed known perhaps only to themselves and to God.
- Longing — the word behind "longed" means earnest desire, with nothing bad in it. Prophets and righteous people wanted this with all their heart.
- Withheld — they did not see, because the things were not yet brought out. They studied their own prophecies and learned they were serving a later generation.
- Given — the disciples saw the Messiah Himself. No earlier appearance or word from God could match that.
- Exceeded — even that fell short of what the cross, resurrection, ascension and the gift of the Spirit brought in. Later believers hold more than the disciples held that day.
- Repaid — those who longed and died waiting will still see the day of Christ's glory. They will see the harvest from seed only God saw them sow.